Smart phones have already changed our lives in the most remarkable way, now smart technology is set to change how we live and design our homes in the future thanks to technology lke virtual reality, Exquisite.ie looks at three of the biggest technological advances that will impact interior design in the future....

August 24, 2017

We think of interior design largely as an unchanging concept. Pieces of art and furniture may change, and each space is different. But the idea of interior design like what looks nice and what should be considered when putting a room together is fairly stagnant.

There’s no reason to expect anything different in the future. But what will change is how we go about bringing ideas to life, and what the range of possibilities for control over an interior space looks like. Technology is bringing about some exciting concepts and capabilities that could significantly reshape the ways in which we approach interior design in the near future.

Vitual reality: The basic concepts of organising a room are set to change Photo: Pinterest

For starters, consider these three significant developments.

Smart Tech Will Put The Focus On Atmosphere

By now you’ve no doubt heard a great deal about how “smart” devices are going to change our homes in all kinds of fun, practical ways. You may even have tapped into some of these ways already. Smart thermostats like Nest are already popular for their ability to learn homeowners’ preferences and conserve energy.

Also, electronic home assistants like the Google Home and Amazon Echo can help you to control certain things like lighting, temperature, and music simply by calling out orders like you’re Tony Stark at work in his high-tech basement.

And in the next few years homes will only come packed with more convenient features. Your coffee maker might start when your alarm clock goes off, for instance, and your doors might unlock for you when you open the garage door. There are all kinds of applications.

Well, the smart tech revolution in homes is also going to affect design. It’s a given at this point that we’ll have more devices, like the aforementioned home assistant products, that allow us to control our environments. As one article on the subject phrased it, we’ll also have more surface area to control, and that means design. Sure, we’ll be able to control lighting with a few spoken words, and that certainly counts as a design-related concept. We’ll also be able to raise and lower curtains, and in some cases “give an entire ceiling or wall a digital treatment” (as the article also mentions). We could truly be able to transform and manipulate our environments on the go.

AR Will Allow Us To Visualize Concepts In New Ways

Augmented and virtual reality have been a lot of fun to keep track of in the last year or two, not just because they’re new, but because they have a unique ability to advance existing activities and practices to new heights.

The most popular example of AR to date is Pokémon GO, which took a popular video game and turned it into a real world experience.

Augmented reality: Pokémon Go was a game changer Photo: Gameranx.com

In some cases, we’ve even seen an existing form of immersion simply become deeper. Just a year ago the claim was made that live casinos (meaning online games with feeds to live dealers) represented the cutting edge in online gaming tech. Now, the same gamers who enjoyed this sort of experience are expecting full-fledged VR casinos.

The same type of progression is already underway with regard to interior design. That an app or website can allow you to design a virtual room with your choice of decorations and furniture is nothing new. We’ve long been able to use these tools to visualize concepts and at least come up with rough ideas of what rooms could look like.

With AR, we’ll actually be able to see virtual representations of furniture in physical space.

You’ll only need to hold your phone or tablet up and aim it at the space in question, and an AR program will be able to show you that space with your chosen furniture or decorations in it.

Virtual Reality: Interior design is about to become less risky as we trial furniture without the commitment of buying them first

3D Printing Means More Customized Furniture

This idea is a little more straightforward as it’s pretty much spelled out! Furniture is already being 3D printed, and right now the main benefit is that interior designers can quickly demonstrate their designs, rather than waiting for materials and construction over what can be a fairly lengthy period of time.

This should result in more variety and originality in the types of pieces we see in stores and online. We should also expect to play a role. The ability to customize pieces of furniture that can then be 3D printed, or even to make minor adjustments to existing designer pieces, is right around the corner.